FOOTBALLER Gordon Gilbert has revealed why he is using his skills on the pitch to lead a new drive in South Africa to save the white rhino from brutal poachers.

The number of rhinos killed by gangs soared from just 13 five years ago to 488 last year and the 29-year-old is determined to stop the white rhino being hunted to the same level as the black rhino, which teeters on the verge of extinction.

Gordon, who was a star at St Johnstone and East Fife but now plays for South African league team Mpumalanga Black Aces, is taking the conservation message into the communities on the frontline of the war against poachers, who hunt the rhinos for their valuable horns.

He gets the villagers interested with coaching classes for youngsters before delivering his hard-hitting words.

Speaking before starting training with his team-mates, Gordon said: “In the last six months, rhino poaching has hit an all-time high.

“Poaching has become such a tame word that I don’t really like to use it. The rhinos are being slaughtered – it’s sick.

“So many people all over the world know what’s going on out there but everyone is waiting for their neighbour to do something about it so nothing ever gets done. I was glad to be part of this and try to do something.

“Last year 488 rhinos were killed by poachers in South Africa – that’s more than one a day.

“I have tracked rhinos in the wild and they are such beautiful animals. It is awful they are being killed for that one horn.”

Gordon, who was born in South Africa, grew up in Scotland and won the third division title with East Fife.

But it was when he moved to South Africa, playing initially with the first division Tuks and then in the premier league with the Kaizer Chiefs and Moroka Swallows, that his career really took off.

Now he has committed himself to the rhino cause and is using all of his pulling power to get the message across.

He said: “I just have such a passion for wildlife. I came here to play for one season seven years ago and have stayed ever since.

“I always felt that our season was hectic and professional football is such an intense environment that I found going into the bush was so relaxing and tranquil. It was a real getaway for me and I ended up doing it at every opportunity.

“I grew a real love and passion for the wildlife and the bush.

“Professional footballers here are encouraged to have what they call social responsibility – you visit HIV clinics or support orphanages and a lot of players work with needy children.

“There’s a lot of emphasis on that kind of thing so players give something back to the community. I wanted to do something different and it needed more attention than it was getting.”

Gordon’s decision was not misplaced. The worldwide demand for rhino horn has escalated to such an extent that it is now worth more than gold.

The market in the Far East is colossal, particularly in Vietnam, where poachers have hunted the Javan rhino to extinction.

It is the qualities of the powdered rhino horn that makes it such a sought-after product. Historically, it has been known as an aphrodisiac but more recently it has been wrongly claimed to have medicinal properties, including the ability to cure cancer.

Coupled with the opening up of the Chinese markets, the hunt for rhino horn has exploded.

The South African government have replied by hiring hundreds more anti-poaching rangers. But the Kruger National Park alone – where almost half of the rhinos killed last year lived– is the size of Israel so monitoring the problem is not as easy as it sounds.

Gordon said: “All this stuff about the horn being an aphrodisiac and curing cancer is nonsense. Rhino horn is made of the same substance as finger nails – that’s a fact.”

Sadly, it is a fact the increasingly sophisticated poachers are happy to ignore.

With rangers and local communities on heightened alert to them, they have devised new and more cruel ways of hunting their prey.

Instead of shooting the rhino, they come in quickly by helicopter and hit the animal with a tranquilliser dart. They then use a chainsaw to cut off its horn as near to the bone as possible – because that is supposed to be the best part – and fly out again.

The animal wakes up in enormous pain and with little chance of living. It is a merciless and pitiful death.

Gordon was taken on by safari company &Beyond for their charity Footprints of Hope to raise awareness among the people living around the areas where poachers operate.

Often these communities know the killers are in the area but they are either too frightened to report them or do not know how.

In the winter close season, Gordon completed a 100-mile walk through the bush to reach out to these villages – all of them football daft.

He and his team ran football clinics, did a bit of coaching or refereeing and then did a presentation about the rhino and its importance to South Africa.

He said: “My role was to speak to the people and put my point across about why I was getting involved. Each day when we were not in one of the villages, we would have a challenge, like tracking a rhino.

“There were days when it was so hot but we would walk nine hours without stopping and we did this for 12 days.

“It was very intensive but really rewarding and, at the end of the day, everyone will gain from it.

“The rhino is South Africa’s heritage but it also brings in tourism and that keeps people in jobs. What we were trying to get across was that the rhino is worth more to the people alive than dead.

“These poachers offer villagers money to tell them where the rhinos are or to help them hunt and, for people as poor as they are, it is very difficult to refuse.”

At one village Gordon joined the anti-poaching rangers football team.

He said: “Before the match I popped into the bush for a minute and saw this massive footprint of a lion. It suddenly brings it home to you how near the animals are.”

He visits Scotland every year and would like to come back to play football.

But at the moment he is consumed with the need to make people aware of the horror of the 21st-century poachers.

With scorn in his voice, he said: “It’s all about money and greed – that’s the bottom line.

“I am proud to be an ambassador for this cause. Somebody has to stand up and make a difference.”